Quote:
Originally Posted by RJohans  Okay, carefully sectioning the bad subfloor. Where rotten, it obviously pulls out easily from c-channel. Where not, still being held tight by bolts through c-channel...
Therefore:
1 Access to bolts ONLY from underneath.
2 Removal of belly pan sections required to access bolts
3 Belly pan held tight via rivets driven first through outer skin, then belly pan.
4 These external rivets hidden behind "belt-like" body molding (don't know whatcha ya'll call it.)
So check me on this:
I must first remove belt-molding from all around backend by drilling out the first level of rivets.
Then I must drill out all external skin rivets that now hold belly pan between external skin and c-channel.
Presumably, removing these rivets should allow me to drop the belly pan, revealing the rusting bolts that hold the floor inside the c-channel.
Does this seem correct? |
Some folks call that the belt or belt molding or beltline trim or rub-rail. Some of those rivets probably go all the way through the belt trim, exterior skin, bellypan, and channel, while there are likely other rivets underneath the belt trim that go through those layers.
A few key points here:
1) When you remove those rivets around the perimeter that hold the external shell, bellypan, and c-channel together, the frame will drop if you don't have it supported from below. Due to the monocoque design of the Airstream, the shell does as much work holding up the frame, as the frame does holding up the shell. So be sure to level the trailer first, and then block it tightly as you remove those rivets, to prevent the frame from dropping.
2) Your trailer was assembled with the floor attached to the frame first, then it was flipped over on a rotisserie so the bellypan could be attached to the c-channel. After that, it was flipped back over, and the exterior shell was riveted on. What this means to YOU is that there are some "blind" rivets holding the bellypan to the channel, that you can not see from the outside and therefore can not drill out from the outside. You CAN see their tails through the channel, from the inside with the lower panels removed. I found the best way to get those out is to use putty knife (the kind with the metal handle not plastic) and hammer the end of it, shearing off those rivets.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
-Marcus